The Selfie-Centric phone GIONEE S6s

HOW DOES IT FEEL OUT OF THE BOX?

With the popularity of selfies growing, brands are now focusing more on the camera quality of their smartphones. Unsurprisingly, the Gionee S6s comes with an eye-pleasing design and sports a metal unibody frame with smooth edges, straight out of the box. This phone has a distinctive look with a matte finish at the back. Moreover, it doesn’t only look light from far but it is just the case when you hold it in your hands. The 2.5 D curved glass finishing with gold flushed at the back is an indication that the phone doesn’t look cheap at all.

HOW DOES IT PERFORM?

Powered by MTK 6753 SoC, clocking 1.3 GHz on an octa-core processor coupled with 3GB RAM and expandable up to 128 GB via hybrid card slot, which enabled liquid smooth multi-tasking. The S6s boasts a 5.5 i nch IPS full HD display and we can’t complain as the display is sharp to look at and renders vibrant resolution while offering a great sunlight viewing experience. We did not face any problems with the Gionee S6s. It managed to handle full HD video playback, switching between running apps and even games like Asphalt Nitro without any issues. However, the phone tends to heat up after about 10 minutes of heavy gaming or GPS usage. The fingerprint sensor wasn’t that efficient and with a juice of 3150 mAh, it sufficed easily for a day with heavy files being downloaded, games played, social media consumed and videos watched. Powerful, isn’t it? You know why? Because it supports auto brightness with economical backlight to conserve power. Moreover, running on its in-house Amigo 3.2 OS, which has a neat interface bundled with some smart gestures.

HOW IS THE CAMERA?

The primary 13MP camera is no slouch either. It uses a Sony sensor with f2.0 aperture and 5p lens. It captures images with good details and rich colour in daylight and surprised us with better-than-expected images in low-light. Some low light images did have visible noise and soft details when viewed on a larger screen. Video recording quality is good — you can record full HD video from the rear camera while the front camera is limited to 720p. My pick of the mode was Ultra pixel and Gionee always manages to pull something off the hat with a new mode in every smartphone launch.

WHAT’S SPECIAL?

The front camera, on the other hand, is what makes the phone worth it. The selfie 8 MP camera is complemented by a LED flash as well as screen flash for taking well-lit selfies even during the night. The selfies come out sharp and capture a lot of details. This quality is enough to make every selfie lover buy it.

WHAT IS THE VERDICT?

At the time where camera market is booming, Gionee stepped in focusing solely on front flash camera for selfies. It seems like a straightforward phone with some likeable features, especially for those with a selfie fetish. With a price tag of ₹ 17,999, it was a little shy of convincing me.